It is usually desired to minimize the mass of any footwear and this is especially true for footwear used in competitive sports such as ice hockey and figure skating. The mass of a steel blade conventionally used for ice skates is significant and comprises a large component of the mass of the overall skate assembly. Strip-blade technology has been used for many years, an example of such a blade technology is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,150,964 and 3,947,050 which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties, and whereby the strip-blade is hooked or otherwise connected at each end and tensioned over the rocker of the strip-blade holder. As described by these patents, tension in the strip-blade is required to meet the desired requirements of skating.
Prior art strip-blade technologies utilized relatively massive and complex blade tensioning mechanisms. As a result, this technology does not offer a significant weight reduction. The pre-sharpened strip-blades are typically sold in pairs at retail stores and vending machines to be mounted by consumers on skates equipped with the special mounting fixture and blade-tensioning device. The technology has gained limited popularity based upon other benefits, as follows. The strip-blades are made available to consumers at a price approximately the same as it costs to sharpen conventional skates that utilize conventional single piece steel blades. As such, the strips are typically disposed after they become dull from use. The consumer then replaces the dulled strip-blades with newly purchased pre-sharpened strip-blades. It is thus more convenient for the consumer to use the strip-blades then to have his or her skates re-sharpened. Furthermore, the pre-sharpened strip-blades are typically sharpened on accurate and repeatable factory machines that provide much higher reliability in sharpening quality then the sharpening typically done at ice rinks, arenas, and sporting goods shops—usually by unskilled operators utilizing poor equipment.
Thus, the strip-blade technology provides a convenient and preferred method of procuring high quality sharp blades over conventional re-sharpening. This is important because reliable blade sharpness is a key factor for consistent, maximum performance for hockey and figure skating, for example. Spare strip-blades can be kept on hand, ready for use as soon as blades in use become dull. This avoids the undesired consequence of skating on dull blades because the skater was unaware of the need to sharpen his or her skates. This occurs frequently because the rate of dulling is variable, as it depends on many factors, and thus knowing when to re-sharpen is unpredictable. Replaceable strip-blade technology provides an immediate fix to dull skate blades, even during a game or competition, whereas conventional sharpening technology is employed after the event—when it is too late. It also saves time otherwise waiting for skates to be sharpened.
The degree of success of the strip-blade technology has been limited due primarily to complexities in design in the holder and tensioning devices that resulted in excessive cost to manufacture and devices that are not convenient to use. Examples of such holder and tensioning devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,108,128; 5,383,674; and 5,988,683, which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.